Major Learmont, an old soldier of the Covenant, though only a tailor
to his trade, was taken in his own house near Lanark, or rather in a
vault connected with it which he had contrived for hiding. ‘It had its
entry in his house, upon the side of a wall, and closed up with a whole
stone, so close that none could have judged it but to be a stone of
the building. It descended below the foundation of the house, and was
in length about forty yards, and in the far end, the other mouth of
it, was closed with feal [turf], having a feal dyke built upon it; so
that with ease, when he went out, he shot out the feal and closed it
again. Here he sheltered for the space of sixteen years, taking to it
at every alarm, and many times hath his house been searched for him by
the soldiers; but where he sheltered none was privy to it but his own
domestics, and at length it is discovered by his own herdsman.’--_Law._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 9.]
Thomas Barclay of Collerine in Fife was a youth of eighteen, in
possession of ‘an opulent estate,’ and likewise of a considerable
jurisdiction in his county. His predecessors were loyalists; but
Thomas himself, by the remarriage of his mother to Mure of Rowallan in
Ayrshire, was, according to the allegation of his uncle John Barclay,
in the way of being ‘bred up in a family of fanatical and disloyal
principles, not being permitted to visit or be acquainted with his
nearest relations and friends, and denied all manner of education
suitable to his quality ... not being sent to college’--he had,
moreover, been influenced to choose ‘curators altogether strangers to
his family, of known disaffected and disloyal principles.’ It seemed,
in John Barclay’s judgment, unavoidable in these circumstances that a
supporter would be lost to his majesty’s interests, unless a remedy
were provided.
It seems so far creditable to a government which has a good many sins
at its charge, that, when this case came before the Duke of York and
the Privy Council, on John Barclay’s petition, and both sides had been
heard--namely, the uncle on one side, and the Lady Rowallan, with the
three curators, Montgomery younger of Skelmorley, the Laird of Dunlop,
and Mr John Stirling, minister of Irvine, on the other--they decided
that the young Barclay was of age to act and choose curators for
himself, and that the defenders were not bound to produce him in court;
thus frankly consenting that the young man should rest in the danger of
being perverted from the loyalty of his family.-- _P. C. R._
[Sidenote: 1682.